Wild Charge
by great-growlithe-gamer
Summary: Ralph and Vanellope help out a pokemon, who decides that Ralph is his new trainer. He adjusts well, and gets along with just about everyone...except a suspicous new friend that the core four recently made. Something is off, but the group seems oblivious, even Calhoun. What has the 'friend' planned and how will the core four be warned? Rated T just in case (possible violence later)
1. Intro

**AN: Hey guys! What's up? I really appreciate all the love and stuff I got on my last story, Crash Course! Anyways, this story is somewhat of a sequel to my first one, Light in the Dark. It takes place in the same reality as that one. It's set roughly a year after the events of the movie. And with that, I hope you enjoy the story! This is, obviously, copyright Disney, Nintendo, and anything else that doesn't belong to me. AKA, I don't own any of this.**

The four friends sat at their usual bar table at Tappers, having fun on their little night out, as they typically just hung out separately or met up in Felix and Ralph's game. All around them the other people talked and made a subtle background noise, the light music behind it playing its loop. At the table, Felix wobbled and swayed unsteadily.

"Fix it, what's the matter with you?" the Sarge asked laughingly, questioning her husband's odd behavior.

"I do apologize, ma'am, I've had a bit of the hard stuff tonight and I feel just a little bit woozy." Felix apologized formally, before almost falling off his chair.

"Hammerboy, you had an _apple cider._ _I've _drank things closer to alcohol." Vanellope laughed, poking fun at Felix for being a lightweight. In reality he actually did have a drink, but it was a joke.

"Yeah, you two can both be our designated drivers, it's not like either of you could take a drink anyways." Calhoun said smugly, knocking Felix's hat off and grinning when he looked flustered trying to find it.

"Well of course _I'd _be a designated driver, I could drive circles around all of you even if I _did_ get drunk." Vanellope said proudly, reaching for Ralph's abnormally large mug of beer as if to prove her point then and there.

"Which you _are not _going to do." Ralph scolded, and removed the large glass from her reach, placing it on the other side of him and far from her reach.

"Aww, why not? I could technically drink, I'm over 21 if you count my age plus my game's age. Pleeeaaase?" she whined, looking up pleadingly and trying to convince him to let her. It worked with just about everyone, it was kinda well-known that if she or any other racer made that face, all hope was lost and whoever they were trying to convince would surrender. A few people who had overheard the conversation looked concerned for how this would turn out, as it would be bad news if she got what she wanted.

Thankfully for everyone at Tappers, Ralph was immune. "No means no, kid, better luck next time."

"You're no fun, Stinkbrain…" She scowled up at him with crossed arms, upset that she didn't get to test her theory. She had a trick up her sleeve though.

When Ralph turned his back to talk, she quickly got up onto the table and took his drink quietly.

Snickering to herself, she put it under the table and drank some. There's no way this could backfire.

About ten minutes later, the whole glass having been finished off, she's not so sure about that. The oblivious Ralph has finally noticed his _gigantic_ glass missing, and questions her about it.

"I have no *hic* idea what you're talking about." Vanellope slurred, grabbing the table to steady herself when she was in danger of falling over.

"Are you kidding me?! You drank it, really? After I told you _not to?_!" he demanded furiously, looking her in the eye.

"How do you *hic* know? I coulda been *hic* Ss…sarge…(THUD)"at this point, she falls off of the chair she'd been standing on, and gets up slowly.

"I don't feel so great….." she whines, clutching her stomach and putting a hand to her mouth. Ralph's eyes widen as he realizes what's about to happen and he quickly carries her to the bathroom.

"Not so fast….I'm gonna puke…" she groans, and then the two are out of hearing range for Felix and Calhoun.

"Fix-it, you might want to get your hammer ready, cause if you don't the kid's gonna be doing that all night." Felix sighs uncharacteristically, knowing that it'll be a mess, and heads over to the bathroom to help clear things up, leaving Calhoun to watch the table.

Soon they are back at the table, only after apologizing to Tapper for all the sugary puke he was going to find later.

"To be fair, I _told you_ not to drink it." Ralph points out, casually taking a sip of his refilled cup, this time with non-alcoholic root beer.

"I _never _want to bring that up again." Vanellope grumbles angrily, before turning to look up at Ralph.

"Can we go back to my game now?" she asks, trying not to sound as hopeful as she was. Felix had fixed her head-and-stomach ache, but she still felt like calling it a night.

"Why? You love hanging out a Tappers, and we've got like two hours until you have to be asleep." Ralph asks back, trying to convince her to stay. He knew it was useless, if she decided something, it was happening and he was probably going to have to follow along with it.

"No reason, really." She shrugged it off. "Just, you know, to relax somewhere else."

"Fine…" Ralph mumbles standing up from his seat and leaving a tip and payment for the drinks he and Vanellope had at the table in front of it.

"Me an' the cavity are going back to her game. See you tomorrow, Felix." Ralph waves and starts toward the door.

"Have a good evening!" Felix calls happily.

"Night, wreck-it." Calhoun grunts a short goodbye and continues conversing with Felix.

Ralph and Vanellope exit Tappers, and head into the station. When they get there, they find a Pokémon trainer by the entrance, and he's yelling at a little Pokémon in front of him.

"Should we do something?" Vanellope whispers urgently to Ralph, quickly conveying the message that she was not pleased with the trainer and wanted to step in _right away._

"Yes." Ralph prepares to charge, only to be stopped by the surge protector at the exit to the game, right as the late night rush for Tappers started to come in. the stream of people moving past them made it difficult to move without shoving them, which would get him in trouble if he did. He groaned, knowing that it could take longer than he'd hoped to go give that trainer a piece of his mind.

**(POV. shift)**

Struggling to stand on his own, a young growlithe attempts to meet his overbearing trainer's demands. The poor thing looks like he's been beaten half to death from battling, yet his trainer continues to put him through rigorous tests.

"Come on, you useless little mutt, I know water-types that could perform a better flamethrower! Don't you want to win? Don't you want the firestone?" the trainer demands, producing a small red-orange stone from his pocket and holding it out of the growlithe's reach, forcing him to try and get it.

"I want five laps around the station, and if you aren't back in less than 4 minutes, I'll make you do it again." The trainer sends the Pokémon off running, and looks at the fire stone as he does so.

"This Pokémon's a loser. Maybe I should ditch it." He wonders out loud, as the mentioned Pokémon nears the third lap mark after only a minute thirty seconds.

Although the growlithe hears this, he doesn't react much. Instead he pushes harder to beat his record time for the laps, despite feeling like he was going to fall over any second.

He pushes harder because he knew it wasn't always this way. There had been a time, long ago, when he and his trainer got along very well. A time when his trainer's voice was not cold and commanding, but kind and friendly. The growlithe did not know why this time had ended, but he assumed it was his fault for losing a battle. So he pushed himself even harder to try and bring that time back, to make the companionship he craved from his trainer a reality. He would give _anything_, anything at all, just to be able to have that companionship, so if that meant enduring this torturous training, he would do it gladly.

After another agonizing minute of running, the growlithe finishes his fifth lap and comes up the trainer, panting and in danger of collapsing if he was not careful. Everything hurt.

"Two minutes and forty seconds. I guess you have some use after all, Blaze. Now, I want you to torch that guy's bulbasaur in the rounds tomorrow, so get working on your lousy flamethrower before I have Blast come out and give you a demonstration on how to hit a Pokémon with it." Obeying the orders given, Blaze the growlithe tries to carry out the command.

Despite his current low health state, a strong stream of fire is released, and Blaze looks eagerly to his trainer for some sort of praise.

"That was pathetic. You're just a waste of my time, aren't you? If you can't even do that right, why should I put up with you? I'm out of here. Hey, Blaze. Fetch." The trainer cruelly tosses the firestone over Blaze's head and into a fountain, where Blaze cannot retrieve it for fear of putting his fire out, and walks away laughing after throwing Blaze's empty pokeball in the trash, crushing it in the process.

Laughing, that is, until he bumps into an infuriated man who stands nine feet tall. His little pal on his shoulder also looks pretty steamed.

"Hey! What's your problem, jerk?!" the kid asked, glaring vehemently and pointing an accusatory finger at the trainer.

"None of your business, pipsqueak. Just getting rid of that failure." The trainer shrugs it off and continues walking, hands in his pockets.

And with that, the giant man gets angry. He spins the trainer around to face him. "What did you just call it?!"

"Blaze is a failure. He isn't strong enough, so I'm done trying to train him. The firestone in the fountain was just to keep him busy." The trainer replies. "Mind letting me go now?"

"If what you were doing is your idea of 'training', then that's just messed up." The kid frowns distastefully, looking down at the trainer from the big guy's shoulder.

"I could report you for abuse, you know. If I didn't want to crush you myself." The man seems to agree with the kid, causing the trainer to panic.

"Wait! Don't, I'll train them differently, just don't!" he frantically tries to convince them not to.

"Fine, leave. If I catch you doing it again," the man's voice goes dangerously quiet," you'll have bigger problems than being reported, got it punk!?" he finishes with a shout, pushing the trainer back a little with a huge pointer finger. The trainer dips his head gratefully at the man's words and runs off.

Once the trainer leaves, the big man comes up to Blaze, who had been looking on at the conversation timidly, and gently pets his head. At the touch, Blaze's ears flatten and he shivers with some sort of anxiety before relaxing. He then relished in the simple pat, forcing his head further into the man's huge palm and trying to get as much out of the pat as he could, rubbing up against the hand in a way that was almost catlike. He had not received positive attention in so long, it was heaven for Blaze.

"Poor Blaze. That trainer really did a number on him. I can't believe he hasn't been taken to the center." And what the man said was true, Blaze _looked_ pretty beat up. Nothing lethal, but all the nicks and scratches on him added up, as well as the bruises beneath his fur. In truth, Blaze hardly noticed them. Apparently the rigorous, extreme training had its' benefits, for Blaze had increased many of his stats and his level immensely, no longer at a low enough level to be in any true pain from such minor injuries.

The kid hopped off the man's shoulder and took a look at Blaze, patting his head while she did. Blaze sat still and looked at the large man and the small girl and briefly reflected that they were a strange team. But he was also wondering at the moment just what he would do. His trainer was gone, and he could not get the firestone and make someone else want him as their Pokémon. This big man was surely just being nice, nobody wanted a Pokémon as weak as Blaze felt he was.

Blaze turned his gaze off the two people in front of him and to the fountain, where he looked longingly at the firestone beneath the surface of the water. He knew that if he had that, he could be a strong Pokémon, strong enough to make everybody happy with him, strong enough to _never_ lose another battle again.

"Are you still trying to get that? Here, I'll help out." The big man seemed to notice Blaze's change of attention, and ambled over to the pond, reaching a thick arm in and pulling the firestone out with ease. Shaking it off to dry it and his arm, the man sets the stone in front of Blaze.

"There you go." the man said happily. Blaze couldn't believe his luck. This big man had just helped him a lot, and he and his friend are very nice…perhaps the big man was his new trainer?

Blaze wagged his fluffy tail as he looked up at the two with adoration. Then he turned to the firestone and happily put his nose to it.

The bright white light came up around him, and the evolution jingle played. When the light was dimmed, Blaze had evolved into a huge, six-foot-three arcanine, a far cry from his former form of a two-foot-four growlithe that weighed in at only forty one pounds compared to his present weight of three hundred pounds plus that. To put it bluntly, this was one of the crazier evolutions in Pokémon.

Still wagging his tail, Blaze reinvestigated the two with restored vigor, having been healed from the evolution.

"Sweet mother of monkey milk! Ralph, did you _see _that?! He was all tiny, and now, now he's freaking _huge!_ That's so _cool!_" the small kid enthused, happily bouncing around Blaze and now looking up at _him_ rather than the other way around.

Blaze woofed and gave her a lick before turning to the large man, apparently named Ralph, tilting his head as if to ask a question. Was this guy going to say he'd be his trainer?

The girl asked the question for him. "Blaze can come live with us, right Ralph?"

"Hmm…you'd have to take care of him." Ralph answered, posing another question.

"Don't worry, I already take care of you! If anything, He'll be easier to take care of, right Blaze? It'll be just like when Night lived with me!" Blaze nodded and continued wagging his tail in response to the kid. Night… he'd heard that name before, he'd have to think some more about it.

"Ok, come on then, you said you wanted to go home." Ralph turned around and Blaze followed his new trainer, with the girl (Blaze made a mental note to learn her name as soon as possible) tugging on one of his forelegs.

Blaze turned around to look at her as if to ask what she wanted.

"Am I allowed to ride on you? I mean, you're really big enough for it…" Blaze rolled his eyes at the ridiculous question, and dipped his head yes in reply. After all, being ridden was one of the things arcanine was bred to do, they could outrun a rapidash, and that was one of the horse Pokémon. Wasn't it obvious?

"Yes!" the girl climbed onto his back and played with his scraggly mane fur while he resumed following Ralph.

"So, looks like you're her new chair, Blaze. Shame, I liked the whole pirate look, having an obnoxious little parrot on my shoulder really completed it." Ralph teased, patting Blaze's head lightly and laughing.

"Having an obnoxious little parrot on my shoulder really completed it." The girl mimicked, apparently deciding to prove it.

"Oh no, why did I bring this up?" Ralph groaned, holding a massive hand to his face.

"Oh no, why did I bring this up?" the girl continued to copy him.

"Vanellope, quit it." Ralph told her, looking smug as he crossed his arms confidently.

"Vanel- aww, fudge, I can't copy my name, that would just be weird." The kid (who Blaze now knew was named Vanellope) crossed her arms as well and slumped over in defeat.

"I win!" Ralph holds his arms up like a guy would after someone made a goal in football.

"Only 'cause I think talking in the third person is dumb. Otherwise I coulda done that for hours." Vanellope argued, trying to come up with a good reason for losing.

"Look, we're at your game now, are you gonna show Blaze around or what?" Ralph said, changing the subject and pointing to the game entrance.

"Oh! Blaze, c'mon, I have to show you around!" Vanellope hopped off Blaze and eagerly led him around pointing to every other thing that stood out from the frosting and the sky and telling him all about it.

Even though it was probably just babbling for the heck of it, Blaze tried as hard as he could to listen and pay attention. This was important to his trainer's little buddy, apparently, so it should be important to him too. After about a half hour of it though, he gave the girl a little nudge to show he was getting tired of her tour.

"Huh, you're good. Most people get annoyed after about five minutes. Okay, so let's show you where we can live. Really it's your pick, me an' Ralphy could do either one." She gives him a nice pat on the head before climbing up Ralph's arm to get to his shoulder.

"So, we're taking turns now?" Ralph asked teasingly, though it was really more of a statement than a question.

"Yep. Let's show Blaze the castle first, Stinky!" Vanellope exclaimed happily, pointing to a large building in the distance. They were still pretty close to the entrance.

Blaze followed compliantly, taking in his extremely colorful surroundings. It was a little bit of overkill, but Blaze figured he would get used to it eventually.

Soon, they got to the building in question, the castle. Blaze had to admit, it certainly lived up to its name. The thing was huge, even compared to Blaze and Ralph, and that was an understatement.

Blaze allowed the bottom half of his jaw to hang open as he took in the sheer size and _ridiculous _amounts of pink.

"Yeah, I know right? That was kinda my reaction when I saw the inside. It's a bit less of an eyesore in there; I repainted so it wasn't all pink. Apparently I'm not allowed to do that to the outside though. Sour bill said 'The gamers would notice.' cause he's all negative and stuff." Her statement proved to be true when they went inside, it was much nicer on the eyes and there was _way_ less pink.

It was still, however, gigantic.

"Well, I'd give you a tour of in here, but that may or may not take all week, sooo….let's go show you the mountain instead!" Vanellope does something Blaze concluded was teleporting and appeared on his back as she makes this decision. Although it was a bit strange for a trainer to be able to use a move, Blaze decided it was nothing and simply followed directions to the mountain.

"Hey Stinkbrain, how about we race there?" Vanellope looked back at Ralph and asked as they were walking towards the large thing in the distance that was the mountain.

"Both of us know you'd win." Ralph points out, casually attempting to dismiss the idea. No such luck.

"Well, I'm going to race you, so see you there. C'mon, Blaze! Let's get there quick!" she decided to race anyways, and Blaze couldn't see any problems with that, he always liked a quick run anyways, as long as he could pace himself. He was sure his trainer would be able to catch up later, and he was listening to the trainer's friend.

He took off running, and found that arcanine were much, much faster than growlithe. It was an amazingly short run, and he'd barely had to try. The whole time, it seemed like Vanellope was enjoying the speed as well.

"Man, you're _fast_! That's awesome, I love fast! Now we hafta wait for ol' Stinkbrain to show up though, so this could take a while. Hey, you want to hear about this one time when we were at his game and he accidentally broke almost the whole _fifth floor_?" she launched into a story that lasted a good ten minutes, or at least until Ralph showed up several minutes later, out of breath.

"We've been waiting for you, slowpoke! Hurry up, let's go inside!" Vanellope led Blaze straight through a wall (which was…_interesting_, to say the least) and into a very warm cave type place.

Blaze busied himself with finding the source of the warmth, which was pleasant to him, being a fire type and all. He found a little lake of incredibly hot cola.

"Watch out for that stuff, Blaze! It's seriously hot!" Vanellope warned. She was no longer on his back, as Blaze had gone right up to the edge of the cola and she didn't want to fall in.

"Don't worry about it, kid. Blaze here is a fire type, he could go _swimming_ in there and come out without a burn. He'll be fine." Ralph reassured, and Blaze wagged his tail and looked at the cola as if wondering if he should try that or not.

"Fire type? Night was a fire type too! Cool!" Vanellope exclaimed, looking over at Blaze, apparently very happy that he had stuff in common with this 'Night' Pokémon.

'_There's that name again_,' Blaze thought curiously, '_Night. I just __**know **__I've heard it before! That's it, Night was that houndour! She was pretty quiet, but I remember, she was my friend when she was at the pound, which was a short time. I got adopted the day after she…left. She was always mumbling something about "needing to help..." and then something incomprehensible that started with V. Night must have been going on about Vanellope!'_ Blaze's eyes widen as he realizes what he had just figured out. So this was Night's person! He quickly tried to think of other things Night had said. He had not thought about her in a long time, but he heard Night's howls even from the game of Pokémon, they had only stopped about a year ago.

The howls were really something else. They were eerie and mournful even to the pathetic human ear, but to a fine-tuned Pokémon's ear, who could understand the words as well, it truly was heart-wrenching, and creepy at the same time, for some.

Blaze actually found the person Night was talking about in them. This was Night's trainer, and since Night was not here…that left her in the care of Blaze.

Blaze looked over the two people in the mountain with him. He was responsible for not one, but two people now. Blaze didn't mind, it seemed like Ralph and Vanellope were a package deal anyways, you couldn't have one without the other.

He moved away from the hot cola and found a nice cozy spot right by what appeared to be a bed. Sitting tall with his shoulders squared and his back a straight slope, head held high, he looked every bit as proud and strong as an arcanine ought to be. He had to admit, it was a good thing he evolved. Now he had a lot more responsibility, so anything to help him handle it was useful.

"Nice pose, hotshot. You mind if take a seat next to ya?" Vanellope joked lightly, giving Blaze a little cuff to one of his legs as she sat down between them and attempted to use his long, admittedly soft, belly fur as a blanket.

Ralph was not very far behind, yawning and plopping down on top of the bed, not paying any mind to its protest under his weight.

"Hey, kid. How's about we hit the sack for today, I'm beat." He said between a yawn, rolling to the far side of the bed and running a giant hand over Blaze's head slowly.

"Guess I can't find any problems with that." She replied, and hopped onto the freed up space on the bed, before turning to Blaze. "Hey Blaze, you tired too?"

Blaze gives a sharp nod and heads over to the close side of the bed, where he circles three times and curls up, preparing to go to a very light sleep so he could still guard the area.

"Do you want to get up here?" Blaze half-opens an eye to see Vanellope looking down curiously at him from on top of the bed, the image upside down to him because he was looking up to see it.

"Kid, don't be ridiculous, there's barely room here as it is, he looks pretty happy to me down there." Ralph grunted sleepily, eyeing Blaze while he propped his head up with a huge fist and shifted around to get cozy on the bed without breaching the half-bed boundary.

"He could fit up here, watch. I get off my half, he gets up there, and I'll just be in the middle. Besides, he should be able to sleep on the bed if he wants." She protests, getting off the bed and making space for Blaze to get up.

"You know, speaking of bed halves, I don't know why you made the 'stay on your half of the bed' rule if you always end up just coming onto my half and trying to snuggle into me, why make the rule if you're the one who always breaks it?" Ralph pointed out dryly, obviously pointing out the uselessness of a rule that was clearly not being followed.

"For your information, Mr. wise guy," Vanellope said crisply as she tugged at Blaze's front legs in a pathetic effort to get him onto the bed by herself, "I'm allowed to break the rule because I'm the only one enforcing it and I like to do it."

Blaze complied and curled up on that space on the bed, taking up all of the remaining room with his size. He sheepishly laid his head on his paws, embarrassed that he had taken up all of Vanellope's sleeping space.

"Perfect! So I'll just get in the middle there, and then everyone's included!" She said happily, getting up onto Blaze and making her way to the center of the bed.

Blaze thought that all of the space was taken, but it turned out that it was just his poofy belly fur that had made it look that way. She managed to squirm her way in right between Blaze's chest and one of Ralph's beefy arms, successfully taking up any remaining space.

"See? I told you this would work!" she wiggled around until she could poke Ralph, grinning victoriously.

"Why exactly does it matter so much that he gets to sleep on the bed?" Ralph asks irridiculously. "I mean, I don't mind and all, but why?"

"Isn't it obvious? If he slept on the ground he'd be the odd one out, so he has to be included." Vanellope explained, as if it were the simplest thing in the world.

"Well, can't argue with _that_ logic." Ralph snorts sarcastically, then goes to a mock-serious note. "You better not have to get up and use the bathroom, President pees-a-lot, cause then we'd all have to move around."

"Well that depends, can you not have morning breath when we wake up, Barf-breath?" she retorts confidently, and very quickly after he made his comment.

"I don't think you should be talking about barf _breath_, kid, you're the one who threw up like a few hours ago-"he begins a comeback, before getting cut off.

"I _really_ don't want to get into that. Sooo…goodnight!" she gives them an abrupt goodnight, before shifting around a little more to get cozy and beginning to fall asleep.

Blaze and Ralph followed suit, and before they went to sleep Blaze couldn't help but think, '_If this is all just in an hour or two, I wonder what the heck we'll be doing on a full night?' _

Shortly after this thought, Blaze brings his thought train to Night. '_I wonder…if Night would want …to be…here…" _gradually, Blaze's brain slows down as he begins to drift into sleep, tightly packed onto the bed with both of his friends tucked safely away from the open side of the bed with him covering that and against a wall or between himself and the larger trainer of the two with him, Ralph. The area was completely secure, and Blaze fell into a restful sleep, content with the day.

**AN: And that has been chapter one! Now, Arcanine and Growlithe are pretty much two of my all-time favorite Pokémon, so somebody had to have seen this coming. Just so you know, this is more of an introduction chapter, the plot won't come in until the next chapter or later. I'm hoping the story doesn't have too many errors, let me know if you find some and I'll try to fix it. By the way, thanks go to The-Not-So-Ultimate-Writer for the title! Please, tell me what you think of the story so far, and thanks for reading!**


	2. A new challenger approaches!

**AN: wow, I was really slow in getting this one out there. Sorry about that, I wanted to make sure that all the stuff was correct. I introduce the person I talk about in the summary here, who is not an OC. This story is just getting started, I plan on having it be a little longer than my last one. Without further delay, I own nothing but the idea, and I hope you enjoy the chapter!**

Yawning and trying not to move much, Ralph grumpily tried to shift to a cozy position to go back to bed, so he could retain his precious sleep. He succeeded only in hitting his head on the wall, and muttering under his breath about it.

Exhaling loudly, but not loud enough to wake up Vanellope if she was still sleeping, Ralph groggily moved his arm, the one up against the wall and not the kid, to rub the sleep out of his eyes with a large index finger.

Stifling yet another yawn, he glanced across the bed.

Brown eyes met green, and it took Ralph's still sleepy brain a minute to register who the eyes belonged to.

"Oh, hey Blaze. You're up?" he greeted the large Pokémon on the other side of the bed, before his gaze drifted over to Vanellope, still snoozing away right in of the middle of the bed with Ralph's own finger clenched quite firmly in between her arms like a stuffed animal that she would be reluctant to let go of.

Here was another thing that Ralph noticed, she could wake everyone else up whenever she wanted, as she had demonstrated by very noisily getting up _twice _last night, but if they tried to wake _her_ up, they would not be treated warmly, that's for sure.

She would just wake up briefly and hit you, pretty hard for such a small kid, before rolling over on wherever she was sleeping and mumbling something along the lines of 'Don't sneak up on me…' and going back to sleep.

While Ralph was thinking it all over, he noticed her stir and shift about, pulling on his finger and eventually yawning a tiny little yawn (though just about everything looked tiny when she did it next to Ralph) and waking up, releasing his finger in the process.

"Morning, smelly. Were you up eating onions last night or what? Your breath _reeks._" Vanellope yawned another tiny little yawn, and proceeded to go about the morning ritual of making jokes about Ralph's morning breath that really wasn't that much worse than his normal breath (but was still a little worse nonetheless), and waved away imaginary stink clouds in front of her face.

"Well, you would know if I was eating onions last night, considering you kept me awake for half of it. Did I? " Ralph retorted, jabbing at her with a large finger and grinning.

"Hey! How's about a 'Good morning', you big doofus?" she protested, trying to sound deeply offended but giving away that she wasn't by giggling a little afterwords.

"_Morning, sunshine._ There, that better, miss I'll-just-stay-up-all-night?" Ralph said sarcastically, rolling his eyes.

"Much, major-body-odor." Vanellope replied curtly, before turning around to pat Blaze. "Morning to you too, Blaze."

She hopped off the bed, and Blaze stood up and stretched his legs, then peered at Ralph's face curiously before giving him a lick and hopping off the bed.

Ralph stretched and got out of bed, slugging a nearby peanut brittle stalagmite in the process. Shrugging, he picked it up and tossed it into the cola, watching it float and waiting for it to sink in.

Before that could happen though, a blur of orange, black, and off-white fur rushed past both him and Vanellope and leaped into the cola.

Blaze was getting the object, thinking it had been thrown for him to retrieve it, and paddling towards it.

He wasn't a good swimmer. Barely keeping his head above the cola, he spluttered it out whenever it got in his mouth and struggled to move towards the stalagmite.

When he finally reached it, he gripped it in his mouth and turned back towards the two onlookers.

Now he was really having trouble, coughing and continuing to go under-cola with very short amounts of time with his head above the water. If he kept this up, he would drown.

Luckily he didn't, as the cola lake wasn't very big, but he did look like a mess when he got back to Ralph.

Slowly staggering his way to Ralph, a sopping wet (and incredibly hot from the steaming cola) Blaze dropped the stalagmite at his feet before turning around to hack up cola that had found its' way into his throat. When he finished this, he sat and looked at the two, who were still surprised.

"Blaze, do you have a death wish or something?!" Vanellope scolded him, pointing at the cola. "That was a really bad idea, you know."

Blaze looked down at his paws sullenly, wilting like a dead plant at her words. He laid his ears back, and sank onto his belly in submission, looking up at her pleadingly.

"Aww, I didn't mean it. Just be careful. Let's go dry you off, then we'll figure out where you'll go during the opening time." Blaze perked up at this, and licked her a few times to be sure before turning to Ralph and doing the same.

Then, seeing that he was forgiven, he shook all the cola off.

Of course, it splattered everywhere after, but it had cooled a little and didn't singe anyone, so it was fine.

"C'mon, you big lugs! You're gonna be late for opening time! Blaze, you can stay at Ralph's game and watch him smash stuff, got it?" Vanellope directed the two to the exit, giving them a wave as they walked into the GCS before turning around cheerfully to tackle her presidential matters head on.

Ralph allowed himself a small chuckle when he was out of hearing range. "What a handful…am I right Blaze?"

Blaze woofed happily. Maybe he didn't understand what Ralph had meant, but it's the thought that counts.

The two walked across the station without any further conversation from Ralph, though Blaze seemed to be constantly looking up at him as if to double check that he was still there and still pleased.

"So, you're gonna stay in my little shack, ok?" They were now in Ralph's game, and standing in front of Ralph's home that he had made. Ralph was holding the door open and glancing at the small clock in there.

Five minutes to opening. They were supposed to start running their demo right now.

"I'm Late!" Ralph exclaimed, taking off for his post by the dump.

He got there just in time to begin the demo.

It was a crowded day for the arcade, and the characters were kept on their toes all day long, and only lucky few had very short breaks in between.

That was not true in the case of 'Fix-it Felix Jr.' as the 'retro' game was the one of the oldest in the arcade and very popular for that reason, as well as popular for one girl in particular, the one with the glasses and braces who had pointed out that Ralph had been missing on that day a while ago. She played it time after time, usually for most of her time at the arcade, especially right after she was inevitably pushed away from the 'Sugar Rush' consoles by the boys who often hogged it. None of the gamers (or the games) liked them, but they and Vanellope had a special grudge, though the boys never knew it was more than one-sided.

They never chose Vanellope, and for a good reason. When she had noticed what they did to other gamers, she decided not to help them at all, but to actually try and make them lose the game. So while she increased everyone else's chances of winning at least a bit by glitching ahead, she did the exact opposite for those two boys. If they ever picked her, she glitched _backwards _in the race, and made sure that every single time, without fail, they came in last place.

It infuriated the boys to no end, and she liked to help anyone they pushed away from the console excessively, making sure they won first with her glitch assistance, often while the boys stood by and watched in confusement.

Ralph told her to be careful about it but she always shrugged it off anyways.

They weren't at the console anyways, so it was no problem for now.

Ralph counted a total of 13 times that the glasses girl had played the game and beat it in the time she was at the arcade today, before she left and other players quickly filled the space.

Finally, after an exhausting day of work, the arcade closed and the 'all clear' signal was given.

Within less than a minute and a half, a familiar, mess of a candy kart tore through the entry socket to Ralph and Felix's game, just as Ralph made it to his shack of a house.

The kart-and the person inside it-flew straight towards Ralph at breakneck speed. At just the last second before it crashed into Ralph's head, the kart swerved to a stop, though not avoiding bumping into Ralph's tree trunk of a leg quite hard.

"Gah! Kid, watch where you crash into people!" Ralph exclaimed, lifting his leg to hug it to his chest for a moment and make sure it was not injured.

"What's the matter, big ol' diaper baby can't take a little bump to the leg?" Vanellope snickered, before skipping past him and into the just-opened door of his house.

She came out a moment later with a cookie which she held out to Ralph. "Does that make it better, crybaby?"

Blaze, who had followed her out, quickly snagged the cookie before Ralph could take it.

"Aww man, today is already not my day!" Ralph mock groaned, holding a hand to his face.

"If you want a cookie that bad, you could just head to my game. If you're up for a backseat ride, that is. Do you feel like going about, I don't know, 80 miles an hour? That's as fast as I can go with your big behind on the back." Vanellope suggested casually, as if that wasn't where he was going to have to go anyways.

Ralph shrugged and hopped onto the back of the kart. He cast a glance at Blaze.

"How's he going to keep up?" he asked, pointing to Blaze.

"He will, I saw how fast he was. Tell you what, how about we race him to the GCS? First one to my game entrance wins. Ready…"She pulled her goggles on. "Set…" she set the kart into gear. "GO!" she shot off into the tunnel, and Blaze quickly got the idea and followed.

In the start, he kept up with Vanellope's kart easily. But as she gradually picked up speed, Blaze was beginning to have a hard time keeping up.

Ralph noticed Blaze do something from the back of the kart. He used a move.

All of a sudden, Blaze was right next to the kart, shocking both Vanellope and Ralph, before running ahead.

Ralph shouted to Vanellope, who was still looking at Blaze running past them. "Kid, watch out!"

With a yelp, Vanellope realized that she had just broken a major rule-never take your eyes off the road.

_**SLAM!**_

Tires screeched and produced an ear-splitting noise, but it was too late anyways. The kart had crashed full-speed into some unfortunate character who was walking past their course at the time.

Vanellope hurriedly pulled her goggles up above her eyes, so she didn't still have them on when she was evaluating the damage, and glitched to the front of the kart.

A greenish colored man was in a heap in front of the kart, a cape covering most of him.

Vanellope struggled to help him up, before Ralph came and pulled him up for her.

She brought in a sharp intake of breath.

"Oh, crud! Dude, your face is all kinds of jacked up! I'm sorry, really!" she exclaimed, eyes wide as saucers.

The man let out a somewhat hollow laugh. "No, that's how it looks. All is forgiven."

"Seriously? But it looks-" Vanellope was cut off by Ralph pressing a giant finger to her mouth, covering it and scooping her up with the other one.

"Ok, that's enough sugar for you!" he said nervously, smiling with a similar emotion.

"What? I haven't eaten any ye-" Just as soon as she had gotten her mouth uncovered, Ralph quieted her again.

She mouthed an 'oooo' as she understood why he was doing that.

"No, it's quite alright, I get that reaction a lot. I'm Ganondorf, usually called Ganon. I'm the resident villain in the game Legend of Zelda." The man, who they now knew the name of, held a hand out in greeting.

"Yeesh, talk about terrible naming….where'd the game producers come up with that, pulling letters out of a hat? An anagram?" Ralph groaned and facepalmed while Vanellope continued talking.

"Aaaanyways, I'm Vanellope, this smelly old fart is Ralph, and Blaze….where the heck did Blaze go? Blaze?" Vanellope looked around for Blaze, finding him standing a few feet off from the group.

"Blaze, get over here silly!" Vanellope called him over, and he reluctantly complied, looking alert and on edge. His tail was straight up and his ears were shoved forward, and he was giving Ganondorf the stinkeye.

"Huh, wonder what's wrong? Whatever. Nice to meet ya, Ganon." Vanellope accepted his hand shake, standing on Ralph's open palm to reach it.

Blaze began growling in a low, rumbling tone.

She proceeded to shake his hand, and Blaze began to growl a bit louder, displaying his set of very sharp teeth to the man she was shaking hands with.

She stopped and looked over at Blaze.

"What's wrong with you? It's a handshake, it's not like you've never seen one before." She muttered sarcastically to Blaze, before hopping off Ralph's hand and looking up at Ganon. He was a good 4 and a half feet taller than her, not as tall as Ralph, but taller than Sarge, she guessed.

"Sorry, he's acting all weird now…." She said apologetically, casting a 'look' at Blaze as she did so. Ralph was also looking at Blaze, though he was more confused than angry.

"It's fine. Pleasure to meet you, Vanellope." Ganon gave her a little pat on the back, a harmless gesture, really, and Blaze seemingly exploded.

He dashed over to the two, seething with rage and roaring, and quickly grabbed Vanellope by the hoodie. He raced away from Ganon and set her down a few meters away, glaring vehemently at the man and slowly, very slowly, dropping the growl as his attention shifted.

He worriedly looked over Vanellope, earning puzzled looks from her and Ralph. He licked her head a few times, nosed her back, and busied himself smelling the area Ganon patted.

She stood up abruptly and pushed his nose away. "What's up with you right now? You were fine just a little bit ago, and now you're acting all crazy!" she threw her hands up in the air to emphasize, then put them down and spun around on her heel to face Ganon one last time. "How about we go to Tappers sometime to make up for me, you know, running you over?" She asked sheepishly. She felt kinda bad about that, as most would expect.

"Sounds good to me. I'll be there tomorrow night three hours after closing. Just so you know, you probably won't be able to bring your Pokémon in. I have business to attend to, I have to leave. Hopefully next time I see you two it won't be from under your kart." Ganon waved goodbye and began to walk away, ignoring the growl and glare combo he was still getting from Blaze. Only when Ganon was out of sight did Blaze stop.

Ralph and Vanellope turned to get back onto the kart.

While Vanellope simply scowled at Blaze when she walked past him to get into the kart, Ralph stooped down onto a knee to look at him closely.

"Why were you doing that?" he asked curiously, even though he knew he couldn't get an answer from him. He stood up and looked at Blaze once more , and got onto the back of the kart, which Vanellope had started by then.

**(POV Shift)**

Blaze looked up at Ralph pleadingly. He wished he could give him an answer, he did. But he couldn't talk and tell his friends what he could smell so clearly on Ganon. But then again, they trusted the man-maybe he had only smelled wrong, or caught the scent from someone else-maybe it wasn't even coming from Ganon and he had only overreacted.

Blaze hung his head in shame. He would never know why for sure until he saw him again, but he didn't know if what he thought he smelled really came from Ganon. He wasn't even sure if Ganon was a bad person, what if he only smelled of that because he was equipped from the game? It was just after closing time, after all.

Blaze's tail drooped at the thought. He was being a _bad _Pokémon. He knew he must be-why else would they be mad at him?

He ran to keep up with the kart still, but his heart wasn't really in it and he didn't use the move extreme speed to keep up like he did before. He came into the race's finish, the front of Sugar Rush, about a minute after they did, still wondering about what had happened.

Blaze shook it off and walked up to Ralph, sitting down.

"Ok, so….you're gonna meet Sarge and Felix today, hopefully you'll be nicer with them than that other guy. You understand, Blaze? Be nice." Vanellope warned him, dropping her usual light, happy tone. She was being serious.

Blaze quickly nodded, and looked to Ralph for any secondary commands.

"They're both at my game. We can go introduce them after the roster race, which you should start soon." Ralph said, turning to walk down the rainbow bridge, while Vanellope drove off and quickly left for the race.

Blaze followed Ralph and just walked down the hill in silence.

When they got to the track, the race had just started, and they rushed to somewhere they could see the scoreboard.

Vanellope was leading, and close behind her in second and third were Taffyta, who Blaze didn't know, and Minty, who Blaze didn't know either.

Eventually, Blaze's attention lapsed and he thought about what it would taste like to eat one of the candy citizens-not that he would ever dare try it, those things were alive.

Before he knew it, the race had ended, and he loped up to Vanellope to congratulate her win, wagging his tail and absentmindedly hitting another kid with it. Blaze turned around to look for the kid he had just gotten, and woofed apologetically.

"Whoa, what's this thing?" the boy asked, looking at Blaze curiously.

"This is Blaze. Careful, I don't think he likes…new…people?" Vanellope's statement turned into a question when she saw how Blaze was very happily complying with the kids that were coming to look at him, and occasionally licking them. He didn't look like he mistrusted them at all.

"Seems pretty friendly to me, Vanellope." A girl with a lot of pink on said after giving Blaze a pat to the top of his head, which he had lowered to see the other racers.

"Huh. Guess you're right, Taffyta. Totally friendly. …Wonder why he was acting up earlier…" Vanellope whispered the last part to herself, though Blaze could still hear it.

After about another minute or two of the little meet-and-greet, Ralph got over to them and said it was time to go get Sarge and Felix from his game.

Vanellope left her kart in her game and sat on top of Blaze, chatting with Ralph while they made their way through the GCS.

"You know Ralph, I think I have a suspicion as to why Blaze didn't like that guy I hit. You remember what he said, right?" Vanellope started, looking to Ralph.

"You don't think….." Ralph looked down at Blaze, who was blissfully unaware of their suspicions.

"I think Blaze doesn't trust bad guys." The two fell silent after Vanellope said this, and she chewed on her hoodie sting in thought while Ralph looked at Blaze as if trying to decide if that was true or not.

It would have stayed silent if a strong looking man covered in scars hadn't approached.

"Ralph, how are you doing? I haven't seen you since the last bad-anon! I see you and your friend have made a new pal. Who's this big guy?" The man pointed to Blaze, and greeted Ralph.

"Hey Zangeif. That's Blaze." Ralph said simply waving a greeting.

Zangeif stretched a hand out to scratch under Blaze's chin, and Ralph watched how Blaze reacted closely.

Blaze leaned into his outstretched arm, and when Zangeif started scratching….Blaze sighed happily and licked his arm all over the place.

Ralph and Vanellope let out breaths they didn't know they were holding, while Blaze thoroughly enjoyed the scratch, hopping up for a short time to lick Zangeif's face while Vanellope clung to his back.

Eventually Zangeif walked away back to wherever he had been going before, and Blaze whined a little at the loss of his very much appreciated chin scratch and new friend.

"Well, we can cross that idea off the list." Vanellope said dryly, looking down at Blaze.

"We'll figure it out later, it probably doesn't even matter. We're here." Ralph dismissed the conversation, and pointed loosely to the entrance of his game.

The three walked into the game casually, making their way up to Felix's apartment. They usually came to tell them how they did in the roster race, so they wouldn't be interrupting the couple from anything by going up to show them Blaze. It was a good thing the apartment didn't have a 'no pets allowed' rule.

Vanellope knocked on the door very loudly, and when they didn't open it in less than three seconds, ran to the doorbell and pushed it until someone answered.

"Yes, Vanellope, our doorbell still works, in case you were wondering." A tall woman, who Blaze would later learn was Sergeant Calhoun, said bluntly as she opened the door. Behind her was a fairly short man in a blue uniform, who Blaze recognized from spending opening time in this game as Felix.

"Hey Sarge!" Vanellope chirruped a greeting cheerfully, and invited herself in the apartment.

Ralph shrugged as if to say 'what can you do?' and just introduced Blaze.

"This is Blaze. He's really friendly….most of the time." Ralph added the last part carefully, as he looked at Blaze.

Sarge examined Blaze closely, looking him square in the eyes, and eventually grunted her approval for him to come in.

Blaze seemed to nod at that, and slowly walked past her and into the apartment.

He greeted Felix, moving his head down to be at eye level with him.

"Jamminy, that's an awfully big Pokémon you guys met. It's nice to meet you, fella." Felix gave the big pokemon a scratch behind the ears, and then walked up to Vanellope.

"How'd your race go? Did you get on the roster?" he asked politely, even though he already knew what the answer would be.

"Remember who you're talkin' to? Of course I got on the roster! First place, too." Vanellope answered proudly, pointing to herself.

"Good job!" Felix congratulated her, patting her on the back, and Blaze made no move to be threatening.

"So, who's game can we go to today? I vote Sarge's, we never go to Sarge's game!" Vanellope immediately decided on her vote, and from the look on everyone's faces, nobody was agreeing with it.

"You _know_ there's a reason we don't go there, short stuff. You'd get eaten alive by the cy-bugs, they're stronger than the pushover candy animals in your game." Calhoun frowned, shaking her head at the idea.

Blaze perked up and observed the back and forth conversation that started between the two girls. He noticed Ralph and Felix do the same.

"But it looks _cool!"_

"No."

"Pleeeaaasse?"

"No."

"pleeeeeeeeeeaaaaasse?"

"If you ask one more time…." Calhoun insinuated what she would do with a fist, and seemingly ended the argument.

Apparently she hadn't ended it, though.

"Well, I could go if Blaze came. I mean, it's a giant, fire breathing Pokémon. Need I remind you, he could totally kill a dumb cy-bug. They're part metal, I think, he could just melt them and be done with it. Not to mention, this big guy-" she patted Blaze's back to prove her point, "can run faster than a kart going at over 80 miles per hour. See if you can find something to argue with that!" Vanellope crossed her arms and grinned smugly. She knew for a fact that there were no weak points in the argument.

Blaze was getting more and more excited as this conversation went on. This sounded like….this sounded like a battle! And he was going to be battling!

All day waiting in Ralph's game…he was used to fighting brutally strong opponents and going through harsh training with no breaks. He _needed _to battle. He felt as if he would surely explode if he didn't fight something, if he didn't get that experience, that rush of battle. He wanted to attack an enemy, and win, and make everyone proud of him. He wanted to be a _good Pokémon,_ so that his friends would forget about when he was being a _bad Pokémon _with that stranger.

Where was the battle? He would do it, he wanted to battle, he wanted to battle _right now._

Blaze began to pace a little, and held back his very anxious whine. He knew he would battle something. Any minute now.

"I guess you're right. Can't really argue with that." Ralph admitted, looking over everyone in the room.

Felix glanced around apprehensively. He wasn't going to agree to it if his wife objected.

Calhoun had a staredown with Vanellope, stooping down to look her in the eyes, before she abruptly stood up and straightened her posture.

"Fix-it, Wreck-it, look after the cavity while I test this thing at my game. If he fails to meet standard…none of you are going to my game. If it passes….._maybe_ I'll let Wreck-it and the kid go. Fix-it, you're staying here no matter what, no objections." She gave Blaze a pat on the side, and he eagerly followed her out the door to her game, while Felix nodded and Vanellope bounced around excitedly.

**(Breakline/transition)**

Blaze now stood with the Sarge at a big entrance, right in front of the main gate to the outside of her marine base.

"You ready, mutt? No running away when this gate is opened. If you don't fight like a man, you could be killed, so you better give these cy-bugs no mercy. Remember, this isn't one of your sissy little Pokémon fights, you kill them, not just knock them out." Blaze nodded curtly at the woman's words, and looked at the door with heavy anticipation.

When that opens….he can have a real challenge. A battle. And he would win.

"Alright then. Kohut! Open the gate!" As soon as Calhoun had given the command, the gate opened, and the outside world was visible to Blaze.

He took in all of the crazy machine bugs running around out there, the desolate landscape…..and grinned.

Without a second thought, he charged into his favorite thing to do. Battle.

**AN: there really is a lot I could be saying about this chapter. But, I'm afraid that by doing that, I'll ruin all the surprises…..so, I'll leave you to figure out all of your questions you may be having. Questions that, if I wrote this right, you should be asking yourself. This chapter will be pretty important later, soo, yeah. I hope you liked it, and tell me what you think of the story so far!**


	3. Out of the frying pan

**AN: Ok, this chapter is going to have some drama, and it also has part of the reason this is rated T. the cy-bug fight will include injuries. I didn't go into detail, but blood is mentioned and if you don't like that just skip way down to the bottom of the chapter, cause some important stuff for the story is talked about there. I own nothing but the idea, and I hope you enjoy this chapter!**

Calhoun let out a war cry and opened fire with her gun, while Blaze leaped into battle from behind her.

Roaring a war cry of his own, he charged at a land cy-bug, snapping off its' left leg to throw off balance and using a swipe of his paw to bash it's translucent green back in, successfully destroying all its' internal mechanisms.

The second that was done, he jumped over the top of one and took it from behind, setting fire to it and watching it panic and light two more of its' kind on fire. All three of them died quickly when he stoked the small flames.

He felt a bug move and take a swipe at him, dodged it and countered with a bite to the face, which broke the lights in the bug's eyes and left it blind. Blaze finished it unremorsefully with a harsh tackle to its backside, which made it blow up from force.

He could hear Calhoun blasting bugs out of the sky, and he felt the green drizzle of their life force fall over him like rain.

He continued to attack headfirst, ripping holes in their green backs until they bled out or turning them into ashes with one puff of his flamethrower.

He was in the middle of charging another one, when he felt a rush of air behind him, followed by warmth and a loud _THUD_. He turned around to see a cy-bug carcass laying right behind him, bullets lining it's backside like holes in an old wooden fence.

"Always watch your back!" Calhoun shouted, before turning around to knock some more bugs out of the sky. Blaze took in her advice, and looked up, evaluating the forces of the enemy.

There were more bugs in the air then on the ground right now….some were fleeing, like cowards. Blaze grinned toothily as he got an idea.

'_If they're in the air running…I'll just have to take the fight to them.' _He thought to himself smugly.

He roared and charged a land bug, jumping onto its' back and clawing it up while he leapt off it and onto the back of a flying cy-bug. He proceeded to do some sort of crazy, deadly acrobatics in the air, jumping from bug to bug and digging his claws into them, occasionally lighting up the dull grey sky with intensely hot fire.

Above him, a cy-bug took its' chances and moved in on Blaze.

Blaze yelped sharply when he felt hard metal jaws clamping on his back, and he felt a little bit of blood trickle down from the injury and down his reared around to face the culprit of the deed.

Growling fiercely, he bit the thing back, with fire fang. The fire on Blaze's jaws leaked onto the cy-bug from the bite wound, melting the disgusting metallic creature from the inside. It was also penetrated and blown up by a bullet coming from below.

"Watch it, these things become what they eat!" Calhoun yelled up at him, and Blaze decide to leave the skies.

He leapt out of his aerial battle and landed swiftly on the ground, while Calhoun opened fire on the sky cy-bugs again.

Blaze navigated the broken, marred bodies of the cy-bugs that had been killed and had not yet degenerated, heading towards the direct point of a large tower in the distance. He had been told in the GCS that he must reach the top of that before his friends could come in.

Calhoun followed behind him, looking around constantly and blasting a bug or two that got too close.

Blaze found another, smaller gate on the tower, not unlike the one he had seen in the marine base. He looked to Calhoun as if to ask what to do with it.

"Walk up to that door, and run back as fast as possible, because it'll let out doomsday in an instant!" Calhoun commanded, not even ceasing fire on the bugs behind them.

Blaze ran to the door, and when it opened, darted away and watched the scene unfold.

Thousands, millions, of the bugs poured out of the entrance, like water from a pitcher. Green lights blared, and screeching, robotic noises were let out at a shockingly close distance. The background music intensified, picking up pace and amplifying through the game.

Ten of the things charged Blaze at once, and he set them all aflame before running to back up Calhoun, who was going to be surrounded.

The bugs had already dinged up her armor and scratched her up a good one in a few places, so he leapt to her assistance and let out a fire wheel into the mass of bugs, flame spreading in all directions.

It would have been a sight to see if he hadn't been fighting the battle himself.

Bullets and flame mixing midair to form a new attack, like a barrage of flaming arrows launching into a sea of enemies, and bright lights lit the scene from all sides, emanating off the cy-bugs themselves.

Everything in close range was demolished instantly, either pierced by the bullets or melted and burnt to cinders that would blow away in the wind by the fire.

Calhoun was only doing her job, and taking satisfaction in doing it well, and getting relief from avenging her loved ones.

Blaze was feeling happy for another reason. Fighting was his purpose, he was coded to do it and do it he would. And, watching enemy after enemy fall….it made him feel strong, powerful, on top of the world…his trainer would have loved to see him now.

'_His loss. Now, I hope Paul's replacement Pokémon is having a grand old time….because I sure am. He would want me back now. But it would be too late, and you know what? I don't want his companionship anymore.'_ Blaze thought merrily to himself, his confidence bolstered by winning in the many fights.

He was bleeding a little from the wound on his back, but he hardly noticed. He felt invincible as he destroyed the cy-bugs. Adrenaline rushed through his body, the rush of the fight causing it to pump through him, and his heart sped up a little more.

Blaze enclosed his jaws around a small bug, snapping it's sturdy metal body in half like a mere twig. He began to run towards the tower, waiting for Calhoun to catch up.

She followed, and they made their way up the tower, violently crushing any bugs in their path. Halfway to the top, they encountered a big, no, _huge_, bug.

As the two came into view, the bug hissed, spluttering some form of acid all over the floor. Stray globs of acid sprayed onto Calhoun a little, leaving some third-degree burns on her. Blaze watched in fascinated shock as the acid burned through the floor and left a smoldering hole where it had been. He could see all the razor-sharp teeth whirring and spinning about in its' gaping maw, lit up by the lights in the back of its' throat. Calhoun opened fire immediately, though the bullets didn't seem to be doing much.

The bug lunged forward and spat a steaming pile of acid at the two tower-climbers. They rolled and jumped out of the way, narrowly avoiding every shot.

As Blaze thought over plans, a stream of acid missed his head by a hair's length and he darted pat it, and singed his tail.

He seethed with fury for the creature, and without a second thought leapt at what appeared to be its' vulnerable spot-the stomach.

It was a good idea and a bad one. Blaze roared and shredded the stomach, at the cost of being clawed up close range by the bug. It's whirling teeth sank into his left shoulder like a drill, and spun while ripping fiercely, digging into his shoulder deep just as he figured out what to do.

He used fire spin to light his own body on fire, spinning in a circle and digging into the bug's chest cavity with his claws all the while. When he had finished the move, the bug's body slumped over, an empty cavern where the stomach had been and the floor covered in intestines, acid, and life force. Green, gooey slop that was a mix of all of those things coated Blaze's now filthy coat, and his shoulder was torn and left flesh exposed.

Calhoun muttered something about recklessness before continuing to tromp up the tower.

They continued to climb the tower, the bugs attacking in a greater mass and with even more strength. They only got harder.

Everything seemed to be going well, until they reached the 8th floor. They were almost at the top.

All of a sudden, the side of the building burst open, and a truly massive, monstrosity of a cy-bug, even bigger than the other one, broke into the building.

In a split second, it was like the room felt a dramatic shift in setting. It was if someone had taken the heat out of the battle, and left behind a room as cold and frozen as ice.

Calhoun looked up at the bug and, forgetting her intense training for just one crucial second, stared. She whispered two words, so quietly it seemed as if a ghost had said them.

"The queen."

The great beast charged forward, and took use of that one second to do something. It swung a massive front leg into the room, and knocked Calhoun to the side. Even with all her armor, the blow rendered the sergeant unconscious and probably left many bruises on her under the armor. She could not help Blaze any longer. Either he fought and succeeded…or he lost his life.

Grimacing at the thought of what could happen to everyone if he should fail, Blaze took one more look at Calhoun, and saw the bug leaning towards her unconscious body. It was going to eat her if he didn't interfere.

Blaze remembered what he had heard earlier from Calhoun. '.._these things become what they eat!'_ the words screamed at Blaze, bouncing around in his mind, and he knew he had to act quickly.

He leapt to her aid just in time, breathing a flamethrower down the exposed and vulnerable throat and sending the monster reeling backwards , writhing in pain and fuming with anger. All of the lights in it's eyes turned red.

Letting out an unearthly screech, the queen bug lashed out at Blaze with two of the (most likely toxic) stingers on its' claw tips, and he had to leap on top of them to avoid getting hit.

This was all up to chance, he had no idea what he was up against, the stingers could be immediate fatality, or it could be gradual death, and maybe it was just a minor knock in his health. Blaze didn't exactly feel like finding out.

Blaze used extreme speed and rushed up the long length of the beast's leg in a split second, leaping into the air to perform a move called aerial ace, which never missed. He aimed for the biggest eye, still blaring red at him, and attacked.

The light-like eye shattered, and broke into pieces.

The creature reeled yet again, hissing and trying to claw Blaze off its' face. It bucked him off, and sent him flying to the ground in a heap.

The queen bug loomed above him, and stood over Blaze, trapping him in a cage made of its' legs.

Smaller cy-bugs began to pop out of the queen and attack Blaze, scratching him up while he tried to escape. He rushed at a leg and used iron tail, slicing it clean off and running out through the opening it made.

It still towered above him, and it was shrieking in agony at the loss of a limb, spluttering venom and acid at Blaze, who warded it off with fire.

He barked loudly as the bug raked its' claws across his back, leaving deep trenches there before Blaze ran to a safer (if you could even call it that) distance.

The bug then took out another part of its' arsenal, one Blaze hadn't encountered yet.

Two concealed claws branched off from each of the queen's front ones, and between the Y-shaped arch, pure electricity formed.

Blaze let out a yelp as he was shocked by one, electric power attacking his entire body just from one little touch. He was shocked to the core, and it left a searing sense of pain, especially in the cuts on his back.

He shouldn't have been surprised, it _was _a robot bug. Robots used electricity most of the time.

He leapt away and did his best to keep it a projectile battle, he had the upper hand that way. Shoot a flamethrower, duck and cover. That was the plan.

Unfortunately, plans can only get one so far.

Eventually, the bug grew tired of the back and forth game and its' inability to hit Blaze, and lunged with a speed unbelievable for its' size, snagging Blaze in its' front claws and pulling him towards its' jaws.

Blaze looked at the buzzing teeth that he drew nearer to each millisecond.

So this was it. His last failure. He heard Calhoun begin to get up far, far behind him. Only to watch him be killed seconds later. Was he really as good for nothing as his old trainer had thought?

Blaze's stomach twisted at this.

Here he was, inches away from his permanent demise, and he was worried about what Paul thought of him.

He couldn't just give up now, he was still alive! He could still fix everything and go home, with a victory!

An old knowledge lit up somewhere deep inside him.

He knew this feeling! He was learning a move!

Blaze looked on steadily as he drew nearer and nearer to the jaws that would bring his demise. Whatever the move did, he hoped it was something good and powerful, because he really needed it to be.

Blaze shut his eyes and followed the old instinct that was telling him how to do the move.

He felt energy build up inside him, a lot of energy. He held it for as long as he dared, until he felt the hot air from the bug's mouth on his face.

He opened his mouth…and used hyper beam.

A blast of energy with strength that rivaled that of an atomic bomb shot forth and into the back of the bug's throat, breaking through the other side of it and even through a part of the wall that was still standing.

The bug screeched, and fell. The room went up in smoke from the busted lights and mechanisms. Blaze was under the bug's corpse.

Heavy footsteps echoed through the empty room, walking briskly towards where the bug had fallen, which, because of it's size, was most of the room.

Blaze began digging through the bug, trying to get out from under it. After a moment, he succeeded, crawling out from under it and staggering to Calhoun. He was on low health, for sure. But he was still standing.

He hoped he wouldn't be disqualified for getting a little beat up.

Blaze pushed his head into Calhoun's arm happily, and moved her towards the dead bug.

"I can see that. It's just taking me a while to believe it." She muttered under her breath, before turning to Blaze.

"The bugs always attack the weaker opponent, which would've been me while I was out cold. You distracted it." She stared at Blaze for a moment, evaluating him.

She finally broke the silence.

"You don't need to reach the top anymore. Come on back to Felix's game to get patched up. And Blaze…you did good-for a rookie." Calhoun gave Blaze rough pat on the head, though she took care not hit an injured spot, and began leading the two-person march back to 'Fix-it Felix Jr.'

She stopped in the base to change into her casual clothes to allow her injuries breathing room and to get a few cloths and bandages for herself and Blaze to temporarily patch the more major injuries.

Blaze's back and shoulder were the worst, and Calhoun had to wrap pretty much his whole back and front leg in thick bandages.

They got out looks in the station, because they were covered in injuries and bruises and, honestly, looked like they had both been hit by a bus. With claws. And acid. And razor sharp fangs. But regardless, they made their way to Felix and Ralph's game.

Calhoun knocked on the door hard, waiting patiently for someone to open it.

When Felix opened it and saw the beaten up Calhoun and Blaze, he nearly fainted on the spot. Ralph had to take them in while Felix had his typical panic attack inside.

Vanellope just looked at the two critically, as if deciding what to think of the sight.

"My lands, _what happened_ to you two? You usually aren't so beat up when you come back!" Felix finally calmed enough to speak, gently reaching for his wife's arm to begin fixing her injuries as he spoke.

"The queen cy-bug chose a bad time to attack. It knocked me out and Blaze here had to kill it on his own. He's a bit busted up, but-" Calhoun glanced at Vanellope. "a deal's a deal. If you want, you can swing on by my game as long as he's with you." Vanellope shifted a bit.

"He looks tired, I'll go with him some other time." She dropped the topic after that, changing it. "What's under these bandages on Blaze's back?"

"He got more injuries than I did, kid. The ones on his back and left shoulder are pretty bad. Felix _should _be fixing him up before me." Calhoun hinted, and pushed her husband away from the rest of her injuries, walked up to blaze, and slowly began to unwrap Blaze's bandages.

He flinched as she accidentally touched a sensitive spot on his back(which was pretty much all of it). A quick pat to the head from Ralph put him at ease (though he still flinched if anything touched his injuries) for the rest of the time Calhoun was unwrapping him.

When she finished, everyone took in Blaze's injuries. Vanellope shuddered and hugged Ralph's leg, before peeking out from it and looking on at him curiously.

Felix himself flinched, and pulled his hammer out immediately to get to work.

Ralph flinched also. "Ouch. That's got to hurt bad…." He said under his breath.

Felix fixed them all as quickly as possible, and looked at his handiwork, satisfied, before turning to finish patching up Calhoun.

Blaze walked over to Ralph and Vanellope and lay down at the former's feet, looking up at them before laying his head down on top of Ralph's foot, and promptly beginning to sleep from exhaustion.

**(breakline/transition)**

Blaze was out like a light for about half an hour, before his instinct came and kicked him in the face. What was he doing _sleeping?! _He had a very important _job _to do!

He leapt to his feet quickly, surprising everyone in the room. When he saw no threat present, he calmed down.

Well, momentarily at least.

"Hey, it's around the time we said we'd meet up with that guy I ran over, Ralph." Vanellope pointed out, looking at a clock on the wall and glancing at Ralph.

"You did _what?!_" Felix exclaimed, leaping to his feet from his seat on a cozy little chair to stare at her.

"Yeah, it was no big deal, really. Turns out, his face was always that jacked up. Maybe running him over actually fixed something, cause' that guy's really a nasty piece of work!" Vanellope replied casually, as if she ran over people all the time and it was nothing.

"Listen, Schweetz. You aren't allowed to drive your kart around in the GCS in the first place, but _running someone over?_ That's big trouble!" Calhoun scolded angrily, glaring at Vanellope. Ralph slowly tried to distance himself from her.

"Not so fast, Wreck-it. You aren't off the hook either. Why would _you _allow her to _hit someone with her kart?!_ You were obviously there at the time, she shouldn't have been driving in the station in the first place!" Calhoun growled, yanking Ralph back into place beside Vanellope.

Both of them looked like puppies that had just been told off, and mumbled a 'sorry…..' meekly under their breaths, looking down and trying to avoid eye contact.

Calhoun backed off, and smoothed her shirt, one hand brushing against the military dog tags that she insisted she had to wear at all times. "Ok, me and Fix-it will go with you and help you apologize _correctly,_ and assure this guy that _it won't happen again, understand?_" she said the last bit rather forcefully, before returning to that state of almost-calm-but-still-on-slight-alert that she usually had.

Blaze on the other hand, was ready to flip out.

'_They can't seriously be going to see that guy again! That guy is bad, bad news…I know what I smelled. It was from him. A small amount. But it was enough to be very, __**very **__dangerous. And stuff that dangerous isn't allowed in the station. He had it concealed, he __**knew**__ he had it on him, it was intentional. He was going to use it. ' _Blaze thought to himself in a panicked manner.

He saw the four of his friends go out the door, and scurried along to catch up with them, following them into the station and to the entrance of '_Tappers'_.

Waiting there was the man Vanellope had hit, Gannondorf. He saw them and waved. Blaze saw him and snarled.

Blaze was backhanded in the side of the head by Calhoun, who told him to 'cut it out' before walking up to Gannon to introduce herself and Felix.

Blaze looked at Gannon, hoping that the scent form before would not be there and it had just been a small mistake after all. He wanted to be in close, so he hesitantly approached the man.

"Hey, look! Blaze is _warming up_ to him." Vanellope snickered at her pun for the fire type, and Blaze ignored her and moved in to face Gannon.

He held his nose as close as he dared to Gannon, about a foot away from his gloved hands and the pockets on his side. He prepared himself, and inhaled a long, deep breath through his nose.

_s-n-i-i-i-i-i-f-f._

Immediately, Blaze recoiled as if he had been struck with a club.

'_The smell is still there. The smell. Is still. There. It's __**stronger**__, much stronger. He has more. The smell is still there. __**The smell is still there!**__" _Blaze's heart raced, and his thoughts echoed that sentence over and over. _The smell is still there. _

Gannon pretended to find it funny, and chuckled. "Yes, I know. Not easy on the nose. I don't bathe often. Now, we should be getting into Tappers, right? Let's go." Gannon turned around and began to lead Blaze's four friends towards the game, and Blaze followed, before being stopped.

"Sorry, no pets allowed." Gannon said simply, holding a gloved palm out in front of Blaze, making sure it neared his nose.

'_He knows I can smell it. He knows.'_ Blaze's mind raced, and panic began coursing through him.

"Sorry Blaze. See you when we come out!" Vanellope said happily, oblivious to what Blaze knew.

'_More like if.' _He thought worriedly.

Gannon ushered the four inside, and time seemed to slow down for Blaze.

Gannon looked back and smirked evilly at Blaze, and laid a hand to pat Vanellope's head. It looked like a pleasant gesture, but Blaze knew it was sinister.

Blaze knew what it meant.

It meant she was the first on his list. She was the first target.

Blaze knew what he smelled.

Without a doubt, he knew.

On Gannon, he smelled large amounts of very deadly _poison._

**AN: Bet you didn't see all this coming! Ok, so you probably did, but whatever. What do you guys think Gannon is going to do? How do you think the scene at **_**Tappers**_** will go down? Tell me what you think of this chapter, or the story in general. Thanks for reading!**


End file.
